This invention relates generally to the art of crutches, walkers, canes and more particularly to tip assemblies therefor.
A problem encountered by many when using ambulatory assistance devices, such as crutches, is that when they are extended at angles forwardly or backwardly, their tips do not always get adequate traction with floor surfaces, thereby slipping away from the users. This is not only annoying, but can be dangerous to users. It is therefore an object of this invention to provide a crutch tip assembly which achieves increased traction with floor surfaces when a crutch is angled outwardly in front of or behind a user as well as slightly laterally as is typical of users.
It has been suggested to place a rocker at a tip end of a crutch. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,103,850 to Davis describes such a radial crutch tip assembly having a crutch tip base to be attached to a crutch and a resilient boot forming a cavity for receiving the crutch tip base. Although the radial crutch tip assembly of that Davis patent provides essentially improved performance over many prior-art crutch tips, a boot thereof is still not sufficiently resilient and compliant to achieve an optimized traction. Also, it is desirable for a crutch tip to form a shock absorber, thereby protecting a user's joints and muscles and also providing more pleasant ambulatory movement, something which the radial crutch tip of U.S. Pat. No. 5,103,850 does not adequately do. For this reason, it is an object of this invention to form a boot of a radial crutch tip assembly such that it conforms to a floor surface, during use, to achieve an adequate traction and such that it forms a shock absorber which reduces shock to a user to protect his muscles and joints.